
TA I HO 




BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



JOHN OHILDE, 



CIVIL ENGINEER. 



GENL. C. B. STUART'S 




NEW YORK: 
CHARLES B. NORTON 
1861. 




BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



JOHN OHILDE, 



CIVIL ENGINEER. 




-GENL. cK^STUART'S 




NEW YORK: 

CHARLES B. NORTON, 

1861. 






Baker & Godwin, Printers, 
printing-house square, opp. city hall. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



Life is real ! Life is earnest ! 

And the grave is not its goal ; 
Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 

Was not spoken of the soul." 



John Childe was born in West Boyleston, Mass., August 
30th, 1802. He was the son of Zachariah Childe and Lydia 
Bigelow, and one of a family of twelve children. His father, 
a soldier of the Revolution, was a great lover of liberty and 
equal rights, high spirited, but courteous and kind to his 
friends, and hospitable to strangers. The poor and needy 
never went unrefreshed from his door. He had a strong affec- 
tion for his children, and was particularly proud of his boys. 
To see them rise in the world, and become good and useful 
citizens, was his highest happiness. He was the son of David 
Childe, one of the earliest settlers in the neighborhood, who 
owned a large tract of land, on which he lived, and where 
Zachariah was born. 

His mother was the daughter of David Bigelow, of Wor- 
cester, and niece of Col. Timothy Bigelow, of Revolutionary 
memory. She was a woman of superior intellectual gifts, and 
from her childhood was fond of reading and study. It is told 
of her that, at five years of age, she stood above full-grown 
boys in her classes at school. She had a womanly heart, full 
of tenderness and devotion to her children, and ambitious for 
their highest good. 



4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

During his boyhood John worked upon his father's farm. 
His early educational advantages were those of the district 
school, with the exception of two years spent with an elder 
brother in Canada, and one year of preparation at Georgetown 
College, D. C, immediately preceding his entrance at West 
Point. As a youth, he was not considered remarkably fond of 
reading or study. He was full to overflowing of boyish spirit, 
fond of all manly sports, into which he entered heartily, full of 
affection and tender consideration for those around him, and 
self-denying for those he loved in a remarkable degree. 

July 1st, 1823, he entered "West Point. The Army Eegister 
records him, in 1824, number Y in his class ; in 1825, number 5 ; 
in 1826, number 4 ; in 1827, when he graduated, number 2. 
The official report also says he excelled in Mathematics, ISTatural 
Philosophy, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Engineering, Drawing, 
and Tactics. 

He was appointed, July 1st, 1827, Second Lieut, of the 
Third Artillery. After the usual short leave of absence given 
to all graduates, he was placed on duty at the Artillery School 
of Practice at Fort Monroe, Virginia, then commanded by 
Colonel, afterward Brigadier General, A. Eustis. 

Shortly after his arrival at Fort Monroe, the commanding 
officer, desiring to have a complete plan of the fortifications, 
selected Lieut. Childe to prepare accurate drawings, which he 
executed faithfully and satisfactorily. He continued on this 
duty, and others connected with his position as an officer of 
Artillery at the School of Practice, until selected for ordnance 
duty, in December, 1828. He was then assigned to the United 
States Arsenal of Construction, at Washington City, and 
remained on duty at that station until November, 1830, when 
he was selected to make drawings of the public buildings, 
machinery, and component parts of arms manufactured at the 
United States Armory at Springfield, Mass. Eemaining there 
till December, 1831, he was again returned to his previous 
station at Washington Arsenal. In addition to his regular 
duties, he was, in JS'ovember, 1832, appointed to discharge 
those of Assistant Inspector of Ordnance. In this capacity he 
visited, in company with Major Worth, then Inspector of Ord- 
nance, all the foundries established by the Government, and 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 5 

assisted in the inspection and proof of the Government ord- 
nance and projectiles there made, until February, 1834, when 
he was ordered to join his regiment. He served with it in 
garrison at Fort Wolcott, Ehode Island, until December, 1835, 
when he resigned his commission in the army, to apply his 
high talents and professional acquirements to civil engineering, 
a profession then attracting to its ranks many of the first offi- 
cers of the army. During his whole career in the military 
service, Lieut. Childe never failed to acquit himself with credit, 
and to give satisfaction in whatever duty he was engaged. He 
acquired therein as much reputation as an officer of his grade 
could acquire in time of peace. Entering his new field of serv- 
ice, Lieut. Childe was employed from 1835 to 1836 as Assist- 
ant Engineer on the York and Wrightsville Railroad, Pa. 
From 1836 to 18M he was in the service of the Western Rail- 
road Corporation of Massachusetts ; first, in the surveys and 
location of their road between Wilbraham and the line of New 
York, under Messrs. McNeil and Whistler, as Consulting 
Engineers, and Capt. W. H. Swift, as Resident Engineer, and 
afterwards in the surveys, location, and construction of the 
Albany and West Stockbridge Road, as Resident Engineer, 
with Messrs. McNeil and Whistler as Consulting Engineers. 

The district of country between Springfield and Pittsfield 
embraced the Green Mountain range. At that early period^ 
twenty years since, great doubts were entertained of the prac- 
ticability of constructing a railroad over this tract, to be 
worked by locomotive power. No experiment had then been 
made in this country of running a line through a district of 
such natural obstacles, and he was deemed a bold man who 
could give promise of success. Li their Report the Engineers 
say, " This six and a half miles, from Chester to Washington 
Summit, is the most difficult and expensive part of the route. 
The river is exceedingly crooked, and the mountains shut in 
on both sides, leaving scarcely room for a road, and requiring 
numerous crossings. The rocky points thrust themselves quite 
down to the stream, and no alternative is left, except a resort 
to very objectionable curvatures between these points. The 
grade here is also the steepest, viz., 71 to 82 feet." 



b BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

Mr. Childe had tlie direction of the surveys and location 
through this district, and he entered upon the work with great 
professional enthusiasm. A friend, who accompanied him in 
his first reconnoisance, represents him, on winding in among 
the hills, as swinging his hat and exclaiming, " This is the 
place for engineering." After great labor and industry, he 
accomplished the task assigned him to the entire satisfaction 
of the managers of the road. And it is believed there is not a 
single point through this mountain gorge where, after nearly 
twenty years' experience in operating the line, the most skillful 
engineer could suggest an improvement in the location of the 
track. 

The Albany and "West Stockbridge Eailroad, though in 
another State, and held by an independent charter, is virtually, 
by contract and lease, but a continuation of the "Western Road, 
forming an integral part of the line between Boston and 
Albany. Mr. Childe, as Resident Engineer, had the entire 
charge of the location and construction of this road, together 
with the arrangement of the station grounds at East Albany, 
and the preparation of the extensive depot buildings there. 

From 1844 to 1845, he was Chief Engineer of the Troy and 
Albany (IST. Y.) Railroad, and also Chief Engineer of the Con- 
necticut River Railroad, Mass., from 1844 to 184T. In 1846, 
Mr. Childe, associated with J. P. Kirkwood and Frederick 
Harback, opened an ofiice in Springfield, Mass., for consulta- 
tion and the transaction of engineering business generally. 

During the next two years, 1847 to 1849, Mr. Childe was 
actively employed as Consulting Engineer by the Connecticut 
River Railroad, in their alterations at Hadley Falls ; in the 
survey of the line between Raleigh, N. C, and Camden, one 
hundred and eighty miles ; by the Lehigh and Schuylkill Coal 
Company, and the New Boston Coal Company ; by the Catta- 
wissa and Somerville Railroad ; by the Cincinnati and Hamil- 
ton Railroad, as to the termination of the line in Cincinnati ; 
by the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Railroad on the proposed 
extension of the line to Lewiston ; and at Zanesville, on the 
best mode of proceeding with the Ohio Central Railroad. He 
made, also, in 1848, a Survey and Report of the Albany and 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 7 

Cohoes Railroad, New York ; and in June of the same year 
was Consulting Engineer, with. Benjamin H. Latrobe and 
Jonathan Knight, in the service of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Kailroad Company, on the location of that road over one of 
the most difficult of the mountain passes beyond Cumberland. 
He spent a fortnight in the reconnoisance of this pass, and con- 
firmed, with his able and experienced colleague, the location 
made by Mr. Latrobe the previous year, upon which the road 
was subsequently built, and has since operated with signal 
success. In 1849 he was consulted by the Hartford and 'New 
Haven Railroad Company on a tunnel and new road joint 
depot. 

From 1848 to 1851, Mr. Childe was Chief Engineer of the 
Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati Railroad, Ohio, and that 
road, of one hundred and thirty-six miles in length, was located 
and constructed under his supervision, though only a portion 
of his time was devoted to it. This is one of the most success- 
ful enterprises of the western country. 

The connection of Capt. Childe with the internal improve- 
ments of the southern States commenced in the autumn of 
1848. 

The Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company having organized 
for the purpose of building a road from Mobile to the mouth 
of the Ohio river, a distance of about five hundred miles, the 
Directors determined to place at the head of its Engineering 
Department the most competent man who could be secured. 
It was the longest road that had been attempted in the United 
States, at that time, under one management; and, running 
across four different States, through a region where railroads 
were wholly unknown, vast difficulties were anticipated, not 
only from the nature of the country through which it was to 
pass, but from the ignorance of the inhabitants of everything 
connected with railroad construction. 

The following extract from the reportof the Directors to 
the first annual meeting of the stockholders, held at Mobile, 
Feb. 5th, 1849, shows the feeling actuating them in making 
the appointment : — 

" One of the earliest and most important duties devolving 
upon the Board, was the selection of a competent engineer, to 



8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

make a thorough and accurate survey of the route. Fully im- 
pressed with the bearing which this appointment would have 
upon the prospects of the road, and with the necessity of 
securing an engineer of the highest character for professional 
skill, the matter was given in charge to a committee of three 
Directors, two of whom immediately proceeded to the ISTorth 
upon the duties assigned them. They found the best engineer- 
ing talent everywhere employed, and commanding large salaries 
upon the various public works in progress in the northern States, 
and much difficulty and delay was experienced before they were 
able to fill the appointment. The Board have less reason to 
regret this delay, however, as it has enabled the committee to 
obtain the services of Capt. John Childe as Chief Engineer of 
the Company, — -a gentleman whose high reputation and great 
and varied experience in railroad construction qualify him 
eminently for the work, and command for his reports the high- 
est degree of public confidence." 

The appointment was tendered and accepted, in September, 
1848, and Capt. Childe entered upon the discharge of his du- 
ties with characteristic promptness and energy. 

Four well-organized parties of Engineers were placed on 
the line of the road to make the preliminary surveys, under 
principal assistants of tried skill and ability ; and, in Decem- 
ber, 1848, Capt. Childe himself came upon the route. He first 
visited the northern terminus, opposite Cairo ; from thence to 
Columbus, Ky., and then over the whole line to Mobile, 
where he made a preliminary report to the Board, on the 5th 
of January, 1849. 

During the spring and summer of 1849, the surveys were 
vigorously prosecuted and brought to completion ; and, during 
the autumn ensuing, the maps, profiles, and estimates of the 
entire road were finished. 

During the summer, a section thirty-three miles long, at 
the southern end, extending from Mobile to Citronelle, was 
located, and the work of construction begun. 

Having determined the character and cost of the road, with 
its proper general location, the next step was to raise the neces- 
sary means to build it. An unsuccessful application had 
already been made to Congress for an appropriation of a por- 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 9 

tion of the unoccupied public lands along the route. During 
the session of 1849-50, Capt. Childe spent most of the time at 
Washington, laboring with his usual energy and discretion ; 
and the result was the passage of an act donating about one 
million acres for the benefit of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad 
Company. This was the first of the series of acts of Congress 
on this subject. This was an advantage of the utmost import- 
ance to the road ; and from the passage of the act, its vigorous 
existence may be considered to commence. 

Capt. Childe now returned to the line of the road, and be- 
ing clothed by the Board of Directors with full powers as 
General Agent of the Company, as well as Chief Engineer, he 
commenced a course of successful labor that has never been 
excelled, if equalled, in the annals of American railroad con- 
struction ; and from this date his life is literally " The History 
of the Building of the Mobile and Ohio Eailroad." From one 
end to the other of its long line, with unflagging energy, did 
he labor to accomplish the desired end. He organized, 
placed in the field, and superintended the surveying parties 
engaged in perfecting the location from Citronelle to the mouth 
of the Ohio. On horseback he explored the country tributary 
to the proposed road, to determine the feasibility of construct- 
ing branch lines from sections whose commerce would justify 
the outlay. He examined the eastern part of the State of Mis- 
souri, to ascertain the practicability of continuing the railroad 
on the west side of the Mississippi river, to St. Louis and the 
great l!Torthwest. 

He directed the mapping, classifying, and arranging of the 
lands donated by Congress, and superintended their location. 

In addition to these professional labors, he canvassed the 
whole country through which the road was to be built, county 
by county, town by town, and almost house by house, to obtain 
subscriptions of stock, and interest the people in the great 
work. He organized a system of subscriptions by the counties 
through which the road passed, and his efforts, seconded by 
those of his able coadjutors, were successful in obtaining them 
in almost every county along the road. He visited the Legis- 
latures of some of the States, while in session, and obtained 
valuable privileges from them for the Company. 



10 BIOaRAPHICAL SKETCH 

The Railroad Company having made a large issue of bonds, 
based upon a mortgage of the road, its franchises, and the 
lands donated by Congress, Capt. Childe, with the President, 
Sidney Smith, Esq., were charged with their negotiation. In 
pursuance of this object, he went to England in 1853, and 
again in 1855. Though not succeeding in disposing of the 
bonds to the extent anticipated, Capt. Childe obtained the iron 
and equipments for about two hundred miles of the lower 
portion of the road, and for a part of the northern section. 

In 1852, trains commenced running over the finished road 
to Citronelle, gradually reaching farther into the country, year 
by year, as the road was extended. In addition to his duties 
as Chief Engineer and General Agent, Capt. Childe acted as 
General Superintendent of the Transportation Department. 
The herculean labors which he performed for this road till 
1856, when, owing to a change in the Direction, his profes- 
sional connection with it was terminated, could scarcely be 
exaggerated. The last report of the Company shows that his 
estimates for expenditures and income, submitted before any 
progress or contracts were made, are as exact as if predicted 
with a gift of foreknowledge. 

The road is now finished to Columbus, Miss.; is progressing 
steadily, — Mr. Childe's principles and plans being followed 
exclusively. 

In August, 1852, Capt. Childe was appointed Chief Engin- 
eer of the Tennessee and Alabama Railroad, designed to con- 
nect ISTashville, the capital of Tennessee, with the Mobile and 
Ohio Railroad, in North Mississippi, about one hundred and 
fifty miles distant. 

He immediately organized an efficient corps of Engineers, 
directed their movements for surveying and locating the line, 
planned the mode of construction, and had the work com- 
menced upon it at the northern end before the close "of that 
year. 

In the spring of 1853, he was appointed Chief Engineer of 
the l!^ashville and Cincinnati Railroad. Its object was to con- 
nect the cities of Nashville and Cincinnati, by supplying the 
link between Nashville and Danville, Ky. From the latter 
point, the railroads were already in progress to Cincinnati. He 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 11 

immediately organized two parties of Engineers, had the sur- 
veys carefully made, the cost estimated, and, on the 2d day of 
December, 1853, made a long report to the Board of Directors, 
upon the cost of the road, and the resources of the country 
through which it would pass. 

Some time in 1852 or 1853, he was tendered the Chief 
Engineership of the Tennessee Central Eailroad to run west 
from ISTashville to the Mississippi river ; but this he declined. 
His object was to complete the gigantic chain connecting the 
Gulf of Mexico with the northern Lakes,— from Mobile to the 
mouth of the Ohio river, thence by the Illinois Central, to- 
ward Lake Michigan on one hand, and by N'ashville, Louisville, 
Cincinnati, to Lake Erie on the other,— and he gave no coun- 
tenance or support to counter or rival projects, or any scheme 
not tending directly to this end. 

He took charge of constructing the "Rew Orleans and Ohio 
Raiboad, in 1853, extending as a branch of the Mobile and 
Ohio, from near the northern boundary of Tennessee, to Padu- 
cah, at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, organ- 
izing their affairs upon a sound basis, and stimulating them to 
exertions that finally were crowned with success. 

In the spring of 1855, he was appointed to report upon two 
surveys made by different Engineers for the Edgefield and 
Kentucky Hailroaii. It resulted in recommendations and sug- 
gestions that were adopted by the Company, and insured the 
completion of their road. 

About the same time the ISTashville Chamber of Commerce 
applied to him for a professional opinion and expression of his 
views upon the proposed location of the Eailroad Bridge over 
the Cumberland river, at l^ashville, below the principal steam- 
boat landing. These he embodied in a report, evincing a 
thorough appreciation of the matter and correct views of its 
ultimate effect and influence. Capt. Childe's professional con- 
nection with the Tennessee and Alabama Eailroad ceased in 
June, 1857, and with the 'New Orleans and Ohio Eailroad in 
1856. 

The following extracts from an address delivered by Capt. 
Childe in the Eepresentatives' Hall, at l^ashville, Tenn., Nov., 
1851, show clearly the grounds of the intelligent and enthusi- 



12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

astic interest lie ever felt in the successful completion of tlie 
Mobile and Ohio Kailroad : 

Nature has established, in the existing variety of soil, climate, and 
products of the valley of the Mississippi, from the Gulf to the Lakes, 
a division of industrial interests which strongly invites the people of 
that valley to institute a perfect and corresponding division of manual 
labor, by the introduction of the mechanic arts and manufactures, for 
which their coal, iron, cotton, hemp, flax, and unlimited supply of bread- 
stuffs are a sure pledge of success. Commerce depends for success 
upon the natural and manual division of labor, whilst internal improve- 
ments serve to concentrate population and capital, until these divisions 
are made most perfect and productive to both. * * * * 
Eivers, canals, and steamboats have made wonderful developments in 
this western world ; but the introduction of railways as co-laborers, 
better fitted, by speed and safety, for passenger and light merchandise 
traffic, will stimulate productive industry and trade to such an extent 
as to yield far more of heavy tonnage, and of profit to steamboat and 
canal interests, than in other respects they divert therefrom. This is 
proved since the introduction of railways by the more extensive use 
and profit of canals, and steamboats in England, of the New York, 
Ohio, and Pennsylvania canals, of steamboats upon the Hudson, St. 
Lawrence, Ohio, and upper Mississippi rivers, upon the northern Lakes, 
and along the whole extent of our Atlantic coast. Everywhere their 
number and capacity are on the increase. Even the ocean steamers 
multiply for the trade of those sea-ports especially which are con- 
nected extensively with the interior by long lines of railway. The 
cities of the South cannot create commerce at their respective ports 
by building steamers or sailing vessels. It is the free, speedy, and 
daily connection with the producing millions of an extensive interior 
country that can give th^m a large and miscellaneous exchange trade. 
This connection secured by canals and railroads, then ocean vessels 
will come fast enough without our aid. In Europe and America, under 
the influence of the economical principles above stated, upwards of 
18,000 miles of railways are now in operation, and half as many more 
chartered and in progress of construction. As labor-saving machines, 
they are unrivalled, producing to their owners a sufficient return for 
the capital expended, and to 120,000,000 of people, w^ho enjoy their 
use, a reduced cost of the labor performed, and of the commodities 
furnished by them for consumption, concurrently with the demand of 
at least 100,000,000 of dollars per annum. 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 13 

Railways are of two classes — the first class consists of long lines 
connecting the interior with tide-water. The second class, of branch, 
or cross-roads, for lateral and local purposes, but in most cases valua- 
ble tributaries to the first class lines, or to the rivers. The first class, 
or tidal lines, are vastly the most important to the prosperity of the 
country, and should receive the earliest concentrated efforts of the 
people in their construction. Both individual and public economy 
require that their course should be as direct as possible, length and 
grades reduced, and cost moderate. These features can be attained 
for roads in the Mississippi valley in greater perfection than in any 
other part of the world, and ought not to be sacrificed to local or 
speculative interests, which often seek to warp a line of road from its 
true course. Instances of this sort of influence are seen on many of 

the roads of the United States. 

** * * ***** 

The Mobile and Ohio road has been located entirely free of such 
derangements, consulting first of all the general good ; 3,500 miles of 
surveyed lines have been run to determine the route, lowest grades, 
and least cost. 

Its length in Alabama is . . . 62|- miles. 

" " Mississippi is . . 273 " 

Tennessee is . . . 119J " 

" " Kentucky is . . 39^ " 



Total main line . . 494|^ 

* * ** * * * * * 

Thirty-three miles of the Mobile end of the road will be in com- 
plete operation by the 15th of February next. Forty-nine acres of 
ground for depots have been obtained at Mobile, with two wharves 
and right to run tracks through the commercial streets, that the cars 
may run to the warehouses or vessels of consignees. Vessels drawing 
10 feet water are the largest that ordinarily come up to the city. All 
larger vessels anchor 16 to 25 miles below, in the Bay, where there is 
30 square miles of water, 2 to 9 fathoms deep. On the bar, between 
this anchorage ground and the Gulf, there is 20| feet water at mean 
low tide. On the bar at the Southeast Pass of the Mississippi river, 
there is at mean low tide 15|- feet. Difference in favor of Mobile Bay 
4^ feet. The Mobile and Ohio road will be extended to this deep 
water, and thus the cars brought along side of vessels of 40 per cent, 
greater capacity than can get to New Orleans. The export and im- 
port freights by these larger vessels will be cheaper, and relieved 



14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

from all charges for lighterage or towage. Vessels from the Atlantic 
Ocean, the West India Islands, or the Caribbean Sea, will generally 
make Mobile Bay a day sooner than New Orleans ; and the exchange 
trade of Tennessee and Kentucky, with the southern and western por- 
tions of the globe, will thus prosper at Mobile Bay, via the two arms 
of the Mobile and Ohio road. Whilst the same trade with Europe, 
and the North Atlantic States of our own country, will for like reasons 
thrive at Charleston and Savannah, via the Nashville and Chattanooga 
road. The great office of railroads is to liberate men, whenever desi- 
rable, from the obstructed natural channels of commerce, and by 
equalizing prices, supply and demand, break up the spirit of monop- 
oly, domination, and speculation, of such cities as New York and 
New Orleans. 

The Obion river, in West Tennessee, is the largest stream crossed 
by the Mobile and Ohio road. None of them are navigable. At the 
mouth of the Ohio it will connect with all the steamboats of the Mis- 
sissippi and Ohio rivers ; also with 1,440 miles of railroads, at the 
bend of the Tennessee with the boats of that river, and thence 
by a central line of road, via Nashville, to Louisville and Cincin- 
nati, with 1,523 miles of railroads at Louisville, and 3,500 miles 
of railroads at Cincinnati; thus forming two great routes from 
the Gulf to the Lakes — one ending at Chicago, the other at Cleve- 
land — and connecting thence by railways with Baltimore, Philadelphia, 
New York, and Boston. These two routes traverse 01|- degrees of 
latitude, and connecting with steamers to Lake Superior on the North, 
to the Caribbean Sea on the South, will form a quick transit for pas- 
sengers and for the interchange of the various products of 38 degrees 
of latitude, from Chagres and Trinidad to the North shore of Lake 
Superior, and thus create and stimulate an external and internal com- 
merce far greater than can be promoted by the river channels alone. 

The middle ground of this internal commerce will be central and 
western Tennessee, where are combined the staple products of the 
South and North, with a temperate and healthy climate, Avater power, 
rich soils, iron, coal, beautiful marbles, limestone, and a variety of 
valuable timbers ; all that can be needful for the prosecution of the 
mechanic arts and manufactures, except a system of railways, by 
which the products of all branches of industry within the State can be 
distributed North, East, South and West, and spread broadcast for 
general consumption. The first-class roads that will most perfectly 
form this system are the two North and South routes above named — 
the Nashville, Chattanooga and Western ; the Charleston and Mem- 
phis ; and the Eastern Tennessee and Virginia lines. These five roads 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 15 

severally invite the aid of the State to the extent of furnishing the 
iron and machinery, when the people shall have provided for or exe- 
cuted the local work of grading, &c. They are all long lines (650 to 
1,000 miles), drawing the trade of other States into and through Ten- 
nessee, and cannot fail to be eminently successful ; while second-class 
short roads, for local purposes, as branches to these long lines, or as 
tributaries to rivers, may fail to be profitable, and should be let alone 
until the long lines are completed ; they will then, by the increasing 
prosperity of the people, and the aid of the long lines, come into 

existence as naturally and fruitfully as branches grow from trees. 
***** * * ** 

In relation to the revenue of railways, it must be borne in mind 
that long lines, leading in the most direct and shortest course to tide- 
water, from and through productive and well-settled countries, with 
low gradients, and without breaks of track or gauge, or the delay and 
expense of transhipments, are the most profitable to the stockholders 
and to the country at large ; but short and local roads are everywhere, 
especially in thinly-settled countries, of very doubtful success, until 

favorably connected with tidal lines. 

* * * * * * * ** 

New Orleans is 110 miles from the Gulf; Mobile, 33 ; 77 miles 
difference ; add this to the above differences, and 159 to 204 miles 
(according to the route taken for the New Orleans road) will be the 
greater distance from North Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky, to 
the Gulf, via New Orleans. Will the interior planting and commer- 
cial interests willingly pay the expenses of this extra distance upon 
their exports and imports ? But the position of New Orleans, with 
ten thousand miles of navigable rivers, and five hundred steamers 
pouring the products of six millions of people into her lap, is superior 
to any other city on the globe, especially as these six will rapidly 
swell into sixty- millions, and send her the greater portion of the pro- 
ducts of one and a half millions of square miles. Thus situated, can 
New Orleans envy Mobile, Charleston or Savannah, or any other sec- 
tion of country that strives to better its condition by artificial chan- 
nels of trade ? No. She will not so dishonor herself. Let her rather 
enter the same sphere of enterprise. The field is wide before her — 
too wide for petty and contemptible jealousies. 
**** * * *** 

Let any man review this matter with the United States map before 
him ; trace the Mobile and Ohio Road to the Tennessee river ; its two 
great arms through west and central Tennessee, and its connecting 
lines North, East and West, with all the large cities and rivers of the 



16 BIOGRAPHIC AI. SKETCH 

Union, and he cannot avoid the conviction, that it will command more 
business and revenue, in proportion to length, than any other road in 
the Western World ; — not forgetting, at the same time, that the dona- 
ted lands from the United States will, when sold, pay 40 per cent, of 
its entire cost. 

In October, 1850, Capt. Childe was associated witli Gen. 
Wm. Gibbs Mc]S"eil, and C. S. Growski, Esq., a Civil Engineer 
of Canada, in the work of examining into, and making a report 
npon, the most feasible plan for the improvement of the navi- 
gation of the river St. Lawrence, particularly at Lake St. 
Peters, which forms a part of that river. This lake having 
but eleven feet depth at low water, presented a very serious 
obstacle to the navigation of the river, totally forbidding ac- 
cess to Montreal, of the larger class of sea-going vessels, and 
subjecting their commerce to the expense and delay of lighters. 
To remedy this evil, the Legislature of the Province, as early 
as 1843, made a grant of money for deepening the channel to 
fourteen feet, instead of eleven, at low water, under the direc- 
tion of a Board of Public Works. They undertook to form an 
entirely new channel, and, in four seasons, spent upon it about 
$300,000, when the government stopped the work as a total, 
failure. 

Nothing further was done till in 1850, when, by the pro- 
curement of the Hon. John Young, the Board of Harbor Com- 
missioners of Montreal were authorized to undertake the work, 
and Mr. Young was appointed upon that Commission. The 
first step taken at his suggestion was to appoint the above 
Board of Engineers to report upon the best course to be pur- 
sued to obtain a ship channel with 16 feet in depth at low 
water. Sir Wm. E. Logan, the Provincial Geologist, was asso- 
ciated with them in their examinations. 

After careful examinations and surveys, the Board of 
Engineers made a report, recommending the abandonment of 
the work done on the new channel, and the excavation of the 
old one to the depth of 16 feet, with 45 feet width. 

The recommendation to abandon a work upon which the 
government had expended $300,000 met with much opposition, 
and the business community were for awhile divided on the 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 17 

subject. The plan was, however, adopted by the Harbor 
Commissioners, with complete success in the result — the opera- 
tions of three summers and a half having deepened the chan- 
nel to 16J feet, at a cost of about $300,000, including some 
improvements in other parts of the river. It has since been 
determined to increase the depth of the river at all points 
below Montreal to 20 feet. This is a subject of vast import- 
ance to the commerce of Montreal, and indeed of the whole 
of UjDper and Lower Canada above that city. And the Engi- 
neers upon whose report the improvements have been made are 
held in high estimation at Montreal ; and when, in 1857, the 
Board of Harbor Commissioners was established for construct- 
ing a very extensive harbor at Montreal, Capt. Childe was 
applied to and deputed to organize a Corps of Engineers to 
make the necessary examinations for this work and report 
thereon to the Commissioners. This enterprise contemplated 
a very large expenditure, and its execution required the high- 
est grade of engineering talent. Capt. Childe was placed at 
the head of the corps, and Messrs. McAlpine and James P. 
Kirkwood were associated with him. He devoted himself with 
great assiduity and industry to the preliminary examinations 
and surveys, and the making of plans and estimates for the 
extensive masonry and other work. In preparation for the 
report to the Commissioners, he had an extensive correspond- 
ence, to gather the statistics of trade which would be affected 
by the harbor, or have an influence to recommend its construc- 
tion. He had collected a large mass of statistical information 
relating more particularly to the commerce of the St. Law- 
rence and to Canada, and was diligently occupied in arrang- 
ing these materials for the official report, which he was desig- 
nated to prepare, together with the necessary maps and 
drawings, when he was suddenly prostrated by the sickness 
which terminated his life. The Hon. John Young, through 
whose influence and agency the work has been prosecuted, 
speaks in the highest terms of Capt. Childe, as a practiced and 
scientific Engineer, and of the soundness of his judgment, 
declaring him to have been equal to the boldest and most 
difficult enterprises. 

Such is an outline sketch, as it were, of the immense labors 
3 



18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

which Capt. Childe performed during the last twenty years 
of his life. Nothing but the peculiar adaptation of his 
mind and character to the full appreciation of his profession 
could have enabled him to undertake and so easily surmount 
its discouragements, privations, and arduous labors.* 

To a lover of nature, to one who is fond of adventure, and 
finds real companionship in the grand cathedral solitudes of 
forests, and is called to a deeper worship of the Divine Archi- 
tect in these first temples, the profession of an engineer has 
a peculiar attraction, free, as it is, alike from the trammels of 
social etiquette, and the monotony which attaches to almost 
every profession connected with city life. 

Capt. Ohilde's enthusiasm for the Mobile Road, and his 
self-devotion to it, were like that of the artist for his model of 
clay, as he looks forward to its glorious resurrection in living 
marble, when it shall speak to the world aloud ; or the painter, 
who, as he adds touch after touch to the canvas, each so little 
in itself, dreams and warms into noble enthusiasm as he anti- 
cipates the finished landscape which shall rouse the beholder 
to a fresher appreciation of the glories of nature, and teach a 
deeper love of its All-bountiful Author. 

ISTo doubt, to the uninitiated, to have an absorbing enthusi- 
asm for a railroad seems an impossibility ; but to one who, like 
Mr. Childe, loves his country, a railroad seems endowed with 
a personal and moral power, inculcating patriotism, lessening 
sectional prejudices, and binding together, by social and com- 
mercial interests, North and South, East and West. 

To one who loves the earth as he did, because it is God's 
earth, — and who believes, while a man labors to improve it he 
is a co-worker with its Creator, — a railroad running through a 



* Capt. Childe, during his professional career, was the author of many mechan- 
ical inventions and improvements, the most prominent of which are : Tue Hoist- 
ing Machinery at Greenbush depot, opposite Albany, for transferring- freight 
from car to boat, and vice versa. The T Abutment, as it is called among Engi- 
neers, which was first designed and used for the bridge over Chicopee river, near 
Cabotville, Mass. The Variable Cut-off, for locomotive engines, first designed 
by Capt. Childe, at Cleveland, and applied under his direction to a locomotive 
built for the Cleveland and Columbus Railroad, at the Cuyahoga Machine Works 
of Cleveland, Ohio ; and the Large, Extended Fire-Box, for locomotives. 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 19 

fertile valley, and thus opening to the world its riches, and 
inviting emigrants to its bosom, is most truly a work of the 
broadest philanthropy, and may stir the deepest fountains of 
moral enthusiasm. 

He looked forward to the day when, the road finished, its 
passing trains should, as a shuttle, weave into a higher civil- 
ization the whole valley of the Mississippi, from the ITorthern 
Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. 

It surely needs no great imagination to suggest what such 
a line of road may do. 

Any one who has ever passed the Alleghanies, over the 
Baltimore and Ohio Road, may see what one road has done. 

Well do I remember Mr. Childe's enthusiasm as we passed 
over those mountains, which he had surveyed years before, 
when they were an almost impenetrable wilderness. As we 
glided smoothly on our way, with the grand views of valleys 
and ravines on either side — views only to be surpassed in 
Switzerland — " Who can say," he exclaimed, " a railroad is not 
a great civilizer ? A few years ago this was a wilderness ; 
now, the Iron Monster has climbed the mountain side, and has 
carried with it villages, hotels, schools, churches, grain-fields, 
to the very summit. Is it not glorious to see ! Why should I 
not be enthusiastic for my railroad ? " 

Such were the sentiments, and guch the. spirit, in which 
Mr. Childe labored. 

The immense pine woods, the fertile and enormous prairies 
of Mississippi, the riches of Western Tennessee, must arouse to 
some enthusiasm any one who has ever passed over the line of 
the Mobile and Ohio Road, if they can at all anticipate the 
time when this fertile valley may be the home of a happy 
people — one might say nation, so vast are its capacities. 

The character of Capt. Childe, whether it were regarded 
from a professional or personal point of view, was a rare one. 
That his industry was incessant, and his power of executing 
the most elaborate labors was unusually great, it is only neces- 
sary to read thoughtfully the mere outline which I have given 
of his professional labors, to see, especially when it is consid- 
ered how large a proportion of domestic and social cares and 
occupations falls to the lot of even the busiest of professional 



20 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 

men. In reference to tlie great professional work of his life, 
the Mobile and Ohio Eailroad, a friend, who was a present 
witness of his labors, says, " These labors cannot well be so set 
forth as to give any correct notion of what annoyance and 
vexation he met with. To plan the road, to induce the public 
to sustain it, to smooth asperities, to supervise, and to be the 
fiscal agent also, left his mind and body but little repose ; and 
that he met all these with dignity, energy, and fidelity, all 
must acknowledge." " Those employed by him, no matter how 
or where, had a ready compliance with his requirements, arising 
from his just and impartial character." Another writes of him, 
" He was a consummate Engineer. His accurate and veracious 
mind would not entertain false propositions. He saw the diffi- 
culties that were opposed to him, and, in the abundant 
resources of his mind and character, found the means to over- 
come them. In the works of magnitude about which he was 
consulted, and in the almost implicit deference paid to him by 
Courts and Legislatures, before whom he was frequently sum- 
moned to testify on matters of science, we have the most 
satisfactory evidence of his professional reputation." He had, 
beside all this, the high power of binding to himself in loving 
service all whom he employed, even to the brakemen of the 
road, who would do for the " Capt." what no one else could 
persuade them to do. In connection with another road, a 
friend writes of him, "I had constant opportunities to admire 
his sound judgment, his resolute, laborious and self-sacrificing 
fidelity, and the modest firmness and dignity with which he 
maintained his positions on disputed questions of theory and 
practice. His official reports were models for logical force and 
accuracy, and for remarkable terseness and clearness of state- 
ment, and were generally conclusive in the matters they dis- 
cussed. They also exhibited a trait of character wliich gave 
to all his representations hardly less weight than the reasons 
he urged. I refer to his unswerving integrity and fearless 
independence. All who knew him, or heard him, felt that his 
loyalty to truth was so uncompromising, that he never spoke 
without uttering his honest thought, irrespective of persons, 
place, or policy, and regardless alike of whom it might please 
or displease, and of its efi'ect on himself or others." Were it 



OF JOBN CHILDE. 21 

not for the limits of this sketch, I could add much from the 
abundant resources before me to this tribute to Mr. Childe's 
professional ability and reputation ; but I pass to the more 
sacred sphere of his life as a man, a Christian gentleman, a 
husband, father, and friend. 

With a mind of undeviating honestj and unflinching 
integrity, severe in his requirements of himself, but gentle as a 
woman in his judgments of others — with a power of self-sacrifice 
which I have never seen equalled — he combined a tenderness 
for the weak, the erring, and the ignorant, as rare as it is 
beautiful to see. With a mind which he himself said grew 
strong with opposition and obstacles, he had yet a ready sym- 
pathy to help upward and onward all who appealed to him. 
His generous nature realized in daily practice that "it is more 
blessed to give than to receive." Few persons, in proportion 
to their means, have spent more for others. His private 
papers are a noble record of generous deeds, — a more glorious 
inheritance to his family than wealth or titles. He was dis- 
tinguished for great purity of character, and a high sense of 
honor. A friend has said, " There was in him not only the 
material of the hero of romance, but much of the stuff of which 
martyrs are made ; " and this was literally true. Few persons 
cherish the romantic side of life as he did. He believed that 
the Ideal must lead us to constant aspiration and a truer life 
in the Eeal and Present. 

He fully embodied the ideal of the Christian gentleman. 
His courtesy was a marked feature, and was neve?' laid aside, be- 
cause it was nothing assumed, but the natural outgrowth of his 
manly, generous, and deeply religious nature. The humblest 
woman or child claimed the same free grace of courtesy as the 
noblest. It was not in Ms nature to sit while they stood, or 
to leave them to serve themselves if it were possible to aid 
them. He was an ardent lover of nature. A friend once said 
of him, " It seems to me, not a cloud passes over his head, not 
a bud blossoms, not a tree waves in the sunlight, but brings 
him a real pleasure. The rising and the setting sun, the moon- 
light and the starlight, are a fresher enjoyment to him than to 
any one I have ever known." Each morning seemed to rouse 
him naturally to grateful devotions ; and he often remarked, 



2^ 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH 



" That nature did all tilings gently and gradually," and tie 
used the dawning of day, as one of the many reproofs nature 
offers to man for his reckless haste in bringing about his own 
wishes and purposes. 

He loved this daily, earthly life of ours, and often expressed 
himself thus : " When I feel that I have exhausted the capaci- 
ties for enjoyment of a single day, I may entertain the idea of 
being weary of this life. It is a glorious world ! and there is 
so much to do in it ! " 

He was a member of the Unitarian church, and, both in his 
private and pnblic life, he walked worthily of his profession of 
a follower of Christ. He was specially fond of devotional exer- 
cises, both private and public. 

After all that has been said, it seems unnecessary to add, 
that, in all the relations of social life, he was genial and sym- 
pathetic in a high degree, and in addition to that influence 
over others which truly cultivated and spiritually-minded men 
usually have, he possessed in large measure what might be 
termed a magnetic personal attraction. 

His fine, erect figure and martial bearing, and his strikingly 
intellectual conntenance, impressed even those who casually 
met him. He was eminently gifted in conversation, and in 
that rare power of imparting knowledge to others, which gave 
to his companionship a peculiar charm and value. 

He was a highly gifted letter-writer ; and his observations 
on nature during the long horseback excursions of his profes- 
sional tonrs, embodied in letters, often rose to the heights of 
eloquence, and even poetry. 

In his friendships there was a singular character of tenacity 
and devotion. 

As husband and father, he was all the Christian should be, 
— anxious for the welfare of those he loved with deepest devo- 
tion, never sparing himself for one moment in anything that 
could contribute to their pleasure. 

In his home he found an inner temple, a holy of holies, from 
which it was his aim that offerings of praise and thanksgiving 
should constantly arise, and to which he turned, from the con- 
flicting interests of the world at large, with an often-expressed 
sense of deep and grateful peace. 



OF JOHN CHILDE. 23 

To his keen appreciation of the beauty of the world around 
him, was added a full enjoyment of the minor pleasures of 
the fireside, and the seemingly grave man, full of plans, 
minute calculations, and weighty duties, was always ready to 
frolic with children, and to join in all the pleasures of the 
home circle. His manner was singularly calm and self-pos- 
sessed, and gave an impression of purity of heart which was 
a silent rebuke to every unworthy word or deed, and seemed 
to throw an exalting influence upon all around him. 

In the autumn of 185Y, Capt. Childe devoted himself with 
unremitting assiduity to investigations and estimates relating 
to the works in contemplation at Montreal. 

About the middle of January, he was attacked by influenza. 
The catarrhal symptoms subsided in a few days, but there was 
no healthy reaction. He sank rapidly into that low, febrile 
state, to which the name of nervous or adynamic fever is some- 
times applied ; and, on the 2d of February, 1858, he died. 

In 1832, Mr. Childe married Laura, daughter of James S. 
Dwight, Esq., of Springfleld, Mass. Their only son, Francis 
Dwight, born in "Washington, D. C, in 1833, died in Spring- 
field, in 1838. Mrs. Childe, and the oldest daughter, Leilia 
Maria, aged nineteen . years, were lost on board the ill-fated 
Arctic, while returning from Europe, in the autumn of 1854. 

In 1856, he married Ellen "W., daughter of Mark Healey, 
Esq., of Boston, Mass. He died at his home, in Springfield, 
Mass., leaving a widow, and daughter, Mary Dwight, born at 
Springfield in 1845, and a son, John Healey, born January 
18th, 1858. 

He was buried in the Springfield Cemetery, where a monu- 
ment is erected to his memory. 

" Lives of great men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime. 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Footpriots on the sands of time ; 

Footprints that perhaps another. 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother. 

Seeing, shall take heart again," 



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yBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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